|
THE
BUSH CAMPAIGN AND LINKS TO THE SWIFT BOAT VETERANS FOR
"TRUTH"
SUMMARY
FACTS
(For detailed proof, scroll down or click here)
-
The Swift Boat
Veterans for "Truth" (SBV) is a 527 organization and any
links/coordination between the Bush campaign and SBV is illegal
per the campaign finance law that Bush signed. Yet,
links/coordination between them have indeed been discovered,
despite statements to the contrary. This includes SBV members who are
part of the Bush administration or Election Committees or
campaign, and
Bush/GOP campaigns circulating material promoting SBV or
soliciting funds for SBV.
-
Interestingly, the
Bush campaign lawyer is also the legal advisor for SBV.
Note: I have no idea whether this is
legally allowed or not, but combined with all the other
evidence it is at least something for the FEC to examine.
Update: He resigned after this news came out.
-
Additionally,
SBV's FEC-compliance work is done by a consulting firm that
manages Tom Delay's [(sorry for the error)
the Dick Armey founded] Majority Leader Fund and is thus closely
linked to the GOP election campaign
-
More here
and here
-
The Bush campaign
criticizes Kerry for attacking Bush over Vietnam and claims to
have nothing to do with SBV, while their own spokesmen (including
Poppy and Karl Rove) and web site issue criticisms of Kerry's
anti-war testimony relating to Vietnam, just like SBV does. Not
to mention comments from Laura Bush that the SBV ads are not
"unfair" and Karl Rove's false claim about Kerry's
testimony
-
At the Republican
National Convention (RNC), the GOP allowed people to make a
mockery of Kerry's Vietnam service by wearing "purple heart
band-aids"
-
Bush has been berating
ALL so-called 527 organizations and stating how they should not be
allowed to run any ads - even though he supported and signed the
law that lets them do it and started a 527 himself in 2000.
The number of unprincipled flip-flops by Bush against, for and
against laws controlling campaign finance spending by independent
groups is enough to make any reasonable person's head spin. Of
course, you can be sure you'll never hear this
flip-floppy-flip-flopping reported by the media. I guess Bush is foragainst
the campaign finance law he signed, foragainst 527s and foragainst
free speech.
-
Bush and his campaign
claim that 527s are "shadowy" groups without
accountability, even though they are not according to the very
Bill he signed into law. Perhaps he was referring to the
"shadowy" 527s that financed his win over McCain in 2000
or his Florida recount campaign that same year.
DETAILED
FACTS
Part I: Bush campaign and SBV
connections
1. Ken
Cordier, was part of George Bush's 2004 Steering Committee on Veterans
while being involved
with SBV and appeared in an SBV ad against Kerry - and
he resigned from the Bush campaign after this became apparent
2. Paul
Galanti, who
was appointed in 2003 by Bush's Secretary of Veterans Affairs to serve
on the Secretary's Advisory Committee on Former Prisoners of War, is
an avowed Kerry hater who is part of SBV.
3. Florida GOP
(Collier County) promotes SBV and solicits funds for them
4. Minnesota GOP and
Bush campaign eChairman in MN promotes SBV saying they are
"amazingly believable"
5. Bush
Campaign Lawyer is also legal advisor for SBV (see link for more
comments on whether this is legal or not) - and he resigned from
the Bush campaign after this became apparent
6. SBV's
FEC-compliance consulting is done by a firm that manages Tom Delay's
[the Dick Armey founded] Majority Leader Fund (and other GOP front groups) and is thus closely linked to the GOP election
campaign
7. The Bush
campaign criticizes Kerry for attacking Bush over Vietnam and claims
to have nothing to do with SBV, while their own spokesmen (including
Poppy and Karl Rove) and web site issue criticisms of Kerry's anti-war
testimony relating to Vietnam, just like SBV does. Not to mention
comments from Laura Bush that the SBV ads are not "unfair"
and Karl Rove's false claim about Kerry's testimony
8. At the
Republican National Convention (RNC), the GOP allowed people to make a
mockery of Kerry's Vietnam service by wearing "purple heart
band-aids"
Part II: Bush and 527
organizations A.
Bush berates ALL so-called 527 organizations, stating how they should
not be allowed to run any ads - even though he supported and signed
the law that lets them do it and started a 527 himself, in 2000. His
repeated flip-flops on this topic are enough to make any reasonable
person's head spin.
B. Bush and
his campaign claim that 527s are "shadowy" groups without
accountability, even though they
are not, according to the very Bill he signed into law. Perhaps he was referring to the "shadowy" 527s that
financed his win over McCain in 2000 or his Florida recount campaign
that same year.
Part I: Bush campaign and SBV
connections
1. KEN CORDIER, OF
GEORGE BUSH'S 2004 STEERING COMMITTEE ON VETERANS (ACTUALLY Vice Chair
for the Veterans and Retired Military for Bush - Cheney National
Coalition) INVOLVED WITH SBV AND APPEARED IN AN SBV AD AGAINST KERRY
David
Corn:
I learned from a
reader ("francis_black” at comment number 15) about the Case
of the Missing Vet.
As regular readers
know, the Swift Vets–whose attacks on Kerry’s wartime service
have been undermined by various records and news stories–have
changed course to blast Kerry for having questioned the Vietnam War
once he returned home. The latest ad produced by the anti-Kerry
group assails Kerry for having accused American GIs of committing
atrocities, even though Kerry was merely reporting what other
soldiers had said they had done in Vietnam. It features former POWs
denouncing Kerry for having essentially provided aid and comfort to
the enemy. One of these POWs is Kenneth Cordier, a retired Air Force
colonel who is a director of an organization called NAM-POWs. In the
ad, Cordier says, Kerry “betrayed us in the past. How could we be
loyal to him now?”
The ad does not, for
some reason, identify Cordier as a member of the veterans steering
committee of the Bush-Cheney campaign. “Francis_black” reports
that as of August 19, Cordier was listed on the Bush campaign
website as part of the campaign’s veterans committee. Thanks to
the mega-cache maintained by Google, there is undeniable proof
“francis_black” is correct. (See here.)
But after the latest Swift Vets ad was released, Cordier no longer
appeared on the list of veterans advising the Bush campaign. (See here.)
Digby:
Update 8/21:
The cache has now updated to today. Here's a link
to the screen capture of the August 19 page. Thousands of others have
archived it as well. In fact, I'm reliably told that Olberman showed
it on his show this evening. As Cokie Roberts memorably said
"It's out there."
Nothing To See Here
I wonder if its appropriate for Ken Cordier, a member of the
Veterans For Bush-Cheney '04 steering committee to appear in the new
"unaffiliated" "independent" 527 Swift Boat Liars
For Bush ad?
Of course you will only see his name if you google the cached version
(linked above) of the page on the Bush-Cheney web site. Oddly, the current
page doesn't list his name.
Now I'm certain this fine gentleman who has chosen to sell out his
good name and reputation by joining a filthy smear operaton like
Scumbag Liars For Bush would never coordinate with the campaign just
because he also served as one of the Vice-Chairs Of Veterans
For Bush-Cheney National Coalition in the 2000 camapign (pdf) and
then was named to Bush's
VA-POW advisory committee.
But some might think it doesn't look quite kosher. In fact, some might
think it looks downright illegal.
Jeremy
Pelofsky, Reuters (via DailyKos):
A Vietnam veteran who
worked with President Bush's campaign has left over his appearance
in a commercial by a group challenging Democratic candidate John
Kerry's war record, a campaign spokesman said on Saturday.
Bush campaign
spokesman Steve Schmidt said Ken Cordier was a Bush supporter during
the 2000 election and served as a member of his a steering committee
to help reach out to veterans during this election.
"Col. Cordier
did not inform the campaign of his involvement in the advertisement
being run by (Swift Boat Veterans for Truth)," Schmidt said.
"Because of his involvement with this 527 (group), Col. Cordier
will no longer participate" in the steering committee.
The disclosure of
Cordier's involvement came one day after White House spokesman Scott
McClellan and Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot denied the
campaign coordinated with the group on the ads, which claim that
Kerry lied about his Vietnam War service.
Kerry has called the
ads inaccurate and accused the group of being a front for the Bush
campaign. On Friday the Kerry campaign filed a complaint with the
Federal Election Commission seeking to force the ads' withdrawal.
...
"There seems
to be an increasing amount of evidence that the Bush campaign is
behind this," Kerry campaign spokesman Phil Singer said.
"So it's no surprise that the president refuses to condemn
these scurrilous ads."
Kerry-Edwards
News Release:
KENNETH CORDIER
PARTISAN: Another
Texas Republican Donor
CORDIER, KENNETH
(DALLAS, TX 75208) US AIR FORCE/RETIRED COLONEL 3/2/2001: $1,000 --
Republican Party of Dallas County
CORDIER, KENNETHW MR
(DALLAS, TX 75225) SELF EMPLOYED 2/27/2002: $238 -- RNC/Repub
National State Elections Cmte
CORDIER, KENT
(DALLAS, TX 75206) RETIRED 6/30/2000: $1,000 -- Hutchison, Kay
Bailey
2001-06-05 REPUBLICAN
PARTY OF TEXAS CORDIER, KEN 1 -- $100
(followthemoney.org)
PARTISAN:
"Despised" LBJ
"The procession
ended just before the 1968 presidential election when the United
States stopped its bombing campaign. 'I remember that was the worst
day of my life' because the POWs' treatment worsened and they felt
forgotten by their government, Col. Cordier said. He
"despised" Lyndon Johnson for his war policies."
(Dallas Morning News, 11/10/03)
PARTISAN: Bush
Administration Ties
He is a member of a
Bush administration advisory panel on veterans' issues. ("VA
Announces Membership of POW Advisory Committee," PR Newswire,
4/17/02; http://www1.va.gov/opa/pressrel/PressArtInternet.cfm?id=440
)
PARTISAN: Open About
His Conservative Political Views
"Col. Cordier
(pronounced core-dee-AY) still wears his conservatism on his sleeve
and doesn't hold back in his appraisals of more liberal approaches
"(Dallas Morning News, 11/10/03)
JUDGEMENT: Defending
Abu Gharib Abuses?
"Inappropriate
remarks: Last month, a lone bagpiper marched to the tune of
"Amazing Grace" as silence fell over the distinguished
guests, choir, color guard and the veterans and families who came to
dedicate the Irving Veteran's Memorial Park honoring those who gave
"the last full measure of devotion" to their nation.
Unfortunately, one of the invested guests, retired Air Force Col.
Ken Cordier, a decorated former Vietnam POW and experienced speaker,
chose to politicize this solemn event. In an attempt at levity, he
defended the pulling of ladies' panties over the faces of Iraqi
prisoners by U.S. interrogators at Abu Ghraib as preferable to
beheading. His inappropriate, Limbaughistic comments detracted from
the reverence and purpose of this event. Richard A. Widener,
Irving" (THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 6/13/04)
JUDGEMENT: Said
Fellow POW Was "A Traitor"
Talking about POWs
who were released early: "According to Cordier, Low 'is a
traitor to the other prisoners of war" for accepting premature
release on July 18, 1968.'" (Air Force Times, 11/3/03)
INCONSISTENCY:
Doesn't Remember Kerry Being Invoked In Vietnam
"Cordier, now
living in Texas, doesn't recall Kerry's name specifically being used
in interrogations, propaganda broadcasts by Hanoi Hannah (Radio
Vietnam) or during "attitude checks" -- political
indoctrination sessions -- since Kerry was then not a household
name. But he said he does remember the North Vietnamese using the
so-called Winter Soldier investigations and photographs of war
veterans, both real and imposters, throwing military medals over the
White House fence." (UPI, 8/3/04)
PARTISAN: Questioned
Normalization Under Clinton And Wished Bush Would Win
"Said he
questioned the president's motives and the appropriateness of the
visit at this time. He predicts that the next administration, which
he presumes will be headed by Texas Gov. George W. Bush, will engage
more in "carrot and stick diplomacy" with the Vietnamese
government, offering "generous rewards" for
concessions" (Dallas Morning News, 11/19/00)
More
on Cordier, from the Daily Beast:
Col. Cordier was part
of the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2000, according to his bio, and
again in 2004, as shown on their Bush-Cheney 04 campaign site.
...
The following is quoted from his bio (emphasis added):
During the 2000
Presidential Primary Campaign, Col. Cordier rallied fellow POWs to
support George W. Bush and collected signatures from a large
segment of the POWs for a press release endorsement. Following
President Bush's nomination, he was appointed as Vice Chair for the
Veterans and Retired Military for Bush - Cheney National Coalition.
In that capacity, he coordinated daily electronic message traffic to
the Vietnam POW membership for follow-on networking.
During the fall campaign, Col. Cordier carried President-elect Bush's
message of the need to rebuild our military and the importance of
restoring support for veterans and military retirees at every public
speaking opportunity.
At the personal invitation of Congressman Pete Sessions, Col. Cordier
has served on the Service Academy Selection Board for the 5th
Congressional district for the years 1997-2000. Several students
selected are now in the top ten of their class at their respective
academy.
Col. Cordier and his wife have hosted the annual dinner for the Dallas
Republican Career Women in their home for the past two years.
Congressman Sam Johnson was a guest speaker for this event attended by
53 members and guests.
2. PAUL GALANTI,
WHO WAS APPOINTED IN 2003 BY BUSH'S SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS TO
SERVE ON THE SECRETARY'S ADVISORY COMMITTEE OF FORMER PRISONERS OF
WAR, IS AN AVOWED KERRY-HATER WHO IS PART OF SBV.
Marie
Therese, Newshounds:
Went on a little
internet search. Found something. The names of two of the Swift Boat
Vets - Kenneth Cordier and Paul Galanti - pop up in the minutes of a
meeting with Anthony J. Principi at the Department of Veterans Affairs
(FPOW Advisory Committee) April 28-30, 2003. The meeting was held in
Room 930, at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Central Office,
810 Vermont Avenue, Washington, DC 20420.
...
Galanti's name is
also mentioned in an article in the L.A.
Times as being vehemently opposed to John Kerry, not because he
disputes the medals, but because he views Kerry's 1971 testimony as
treason against the United States.
I find it interesting
that, over a year before the Democratic Convention, in a meeting
attended by Cordier and Principi, Cmdr. Galanti suggested the
creation of a database whose sole aim was the compilation of POW
experiences. The great majority of those vets would be from Vietnam.
Was this database ever compiled? If so, was its purpose entirely
benign or was it somehow used to screen and subsequently contact
veterans whose names ended up on the SWFT website?
Does anyone out there
know the answer to these questions?
Matt
Kelley, Associated Press:
Two former Vietnam
prisoners of war who appear in ads attacking Democratic presidential
candidate John Kerry were appointed by the Bush administration to a
panel advising the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The former POWs in
the ad, Kenneth Cordier and Paul Galanti, serve on the VA's
12-member Former POW Advisory Committee. VA Secretary Anthony
Principi appointed Cordier in 2002 and Galanti in 2003.
Cordier said the VA
panel has nothing to do with the Bush campaign or the anti-Kerry
group. "It's totally apolitical, and we meet twice a year to
bring to the secretary's attention problems from around the country
in VA hospitals," he said.
Cordier and Galanti
appear in an anti-Kerry ad saying their Vietnamese captors used news
of anti-war protests, such as ones Kerry organized, to taunt the
prisoners. Cordier also was a member of a Bush campaign veterans'
committee but quit earlier this month after that role was revealed.
Kerry-Edwards
News Release:
PAUL GALANTI
JUDGEMENT: Wanted To
Ban Draft Dodgers From Public Colleges
"A House of
Delegates committee yesterday killed a bill sponsored by Del. Warren
E. Barry (R-Fairfax) that would have directed Virginia's state
colleges not to admit any young man who failed to register for the
draft. Barry appeared before the Education Committee along with a
former Navy flier, Paul Galanti of Richmond, who had spent seven
years as a North Vietnamese prisoner of war, but the panel
nonetheless killed his idea for the second year in a row, this time
by a vote of 12 to 8." (Washington Post, 2/5/83)
JUDGEMENT: Called
Conservative Christians "Sheep"
"They probably
called their little followers. They vote on that one issue. They
call them sheep. That's exactly what they are." -- Paul Galanti,
McCain's Virginia campaign co-chairman, on the backlash by
Virginia's conservative Christian voters after McCain's attacks
Monday on the Rev. Jerry Falwell and Christian broadcaster Pat
Robertson. AP, 2/29/00
JUDGEMENT: Insulting
Disabled Vets?
"Life has a way
of throwing curve balls and John (Hager) got beaned by one when he
acquired polio as an adult and lost the use of his legs. He would
have been forgiven for tossing in the towel, drifting over to the VA
hospital and spending the rest of his life feeling sorry for
himself." (Richmond Times Dispatch, 6/2/01)
JUDGEMENT: On Critics
Of The Vietnam War: "Communist Sympathizers"
"It caused me to
question anything I hear from Communists or their many sympathizers
or copycats or dupes in America who tended then -- and still tend --
to distort the truth for their personal gain, or even (gasp) to lie
if that will achieve the desired end." (Richmond Times
Dispatch, 6/17/01)
PARTISAN:
Carter-Basher
"I had a great
final three years in the Navy despite the devastation Carter's
policies had wrought on the military. My last Navy year was under
one of the finest-ever Commanders-in- Chief, who led the country out
of Jimmy Carter's unlamented and self-caused
"malaise."" (Richmond Times Dispatch, 6/17/01)
3. FLORIDA GOP
(Collier County) PROMOTES SBV AND SOLICITS FUNDS FOR THEM
Digby:
Patriotboy
has a screenshot of the Collier County Republican Central Committee
soliciting funds for the Swift Boat Liars.
Uh, and it's still on their web site right now at 3:45 PDT on August
21, 2004. Check
it out.
The last google
cache they have is for August 10th, but they were featuring the
book "Unfit For Command" and the Swift Boat ad ready for
viewing right up front then, too.
JohnKerry.com:
“A volunteer for John
Kerry said Friday he picked up a flier in a Bush-Cheney campaign
office in Gainesville, Fla., promoting Swift Boat Veterans for Truth,
a group the Bush campaign has insisted for weeks it has no connection
to. … The flier distributed at Alachua County Republican Party
headquarters promotes a weekend rally sponsored by "Swift Boat
Vets for Truth" and other groups. Bill Shilling, a Kerry
volunteer in Gainesville, says he went to the GOP offices there
Thursday and picked up the flier from a pile of literature on the
table. "The flier they gave me was on the same table as some
Bush-Cheney bumper stickers," said Shilling. [Associated Press,
8/21/2004]
eRiposte note: Reader SWS
informs me that the Gainesville Rally Use Agreement showed that this
was no superficial connection - see this
image. He also states that, "There
are four different Agreements. The picture shows the first part of
each and the signature page of one. My understanding is that the same
individual representing the four different groups signed four
different Use Agreements. Those groups are identified on the first
page of each Agreement."
JohnKerry.com:
Despite constant
denials, the Bush-Cheney campaign today was busted coordinating with
the “Swift Boat Veterans for Bush” in their smear campaign
against John Kerry.
View
the flyer
The following press
release was issued this afternoon by the Florida Democratic Party:
“Bush Campaign
Caught Promoting "Swift Boat Vets for Truth"
While National
Campaign Denies Coordination, Campaign in Florida Promotes Rally
Tallahassee -- On the
same day that the Bush-Cheney campaign repeatedly denied
coordinating attacks with the anti-Kerry group "Swift Boat
Veterans for Truth," the Bush-Cheney campaign in Florida was
caught promoting a rally in Gainesville for the group.
A flyer being
distributed at the Alachua County Republican party headquarters,
which doubles as the Bush-Cheney campaign headquarters for the
county, promotes a weekend rally sponsored by "Swift Boat Vets
for Truth, Veterans for Bush, Alachua Bush/Cheney Committee,"
and others.
4. MINNESOTA GOP
AND BUSH CAMPAIGN eCHAIRMAN IN MINNESOTA PROMOTES SBV SAYING THEY ARE
"AMAZINGLY BELIEVABLE"
DailyKos:
UPDATED! SD42
Republicans is hosted at mngop.com, the official webpage of the
Republican Party of Minnesota, and is "Prepared and paid for by
Republican Party of Minnesota." This official GOP webpage now
links DIRECTLY to Swiftvets.com. Screen capture available here;
archived copy of the webpage is available here.
The link in question is the text, "(see their new ad)"
Bush Campaign Officials say attacks "amazingly believeable!"
On August 5, Larry Colson, Bush's eCampaign chairman for Minnesota,
directed Minnesota Bush supporters to the Swift Boat Veterans for
Truth's attack ad, saying, "This is an amazingly believable
ad." Text and screenshot of message available below. More,
including accusations that Kerry wounded himself... The research
behind this entry, along with supporting documents, was originally
posted at my blog, Minnesota
Republican Watch.
Webpage "prepared and paid for by Republican Party of
Minnesota" and hosted on the official Republican Party of
Minnesota website endorses attacks!
The webpage has these questions about John Kerry's service in
Vietnam:
SWIFT VETS ARE GETTING TO KERRY
DID HE LIE ABOUT HIS SERVICE, repeatedly, in an effort to
embellish it?
DID HE TAKE CREDIT for engagements fought by other men (Lt. Ted
Peck in particular)?
The website also contains a link to purchase the book produced by
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, "Unfit For Command". The
webpage belongs to Senate District 42 Republicans.
Another MNGOP website says Kerry injured himself!
Another website, registered in the name of Minnesota Republicans
and linked directly by the Republican Party of Minnesota claims
that John Kerry injured himself, and then lied about the injury,
in order to receive a third Purple Heart:
The conclusion is inescapable: that Kerry lied by reporting to
the Navy that he had been wounded by shrapnel in his backside
from an enemy mine when in reality he negligently wounded
himself and then lied about the wound in order to secure a third
Purple Heart and a quick trip home.
The website also says: "This story has some serious legs and
will be a significant prologue to the Republican convention in a
month." The webpage belongs to Senate District 51
Republicans.
Colson's
Message - Archived - From a Yahoo! group, members only, which
is why I only have an archived message.
Screenshot
of Colson's message on Yahoo! group
SD51 Republicans
SD51
Republicans - Archived - In case they change things.
SD42 News
Archives
SD42
News Archives - Archived
SD42 Books
SD42
Books - Archived
5. BUSH
CAMPAIGN LAWYER IS ALSO LEGAL ADVISOR FOR SBV
eRiposte note: I have no idea
whether this is legally allowed or not, but combined with all the
other evidence it is at least something for the FEC to examine.
Sharon
Theimer, Washington Post:
A lawyer for
President Bush's re-election campaign disclosed Tuesday that he has
been providing legal advice for a veterans group that is challenging
Democratic Sen. John Kerry's account of his Vietnam War service.
Benjamin Ginsberg's acknowledgment marks the second time in days
that an individual associated with the Bush-Cheney campaign has been
connected to the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which Kerry
accuses of being a front for the Republican incumbent's re-election
effort.
The group "came to
me and said, 'We have a point of view we want to get into the First
Amendment debate right now. There's a new law. It's very complicated.
We want to comply with the law, will you keep us in the bounds of the
law?'" Ginsberg said in an interview with The Associated Press.
"I said yes, absolutely, as I would do for anyone."
Ginsberg said he never
told the Bush campaign what he discussed with the group, or vice
versa, and doesn't advise the group on ad strategies.
...
Ginsberg also
represented the Bush campaign in 2000 and became a prominent figure
during the Florida recount.
He also served as counsel to the RNC in its unsuccessful lawsuit
seeking to overturn the nation's campaign finance law, which banned
the national party committees from collecting corporate, union and
unlimited donations known as soft money and imposed stricter rules
on coordination involving parties, candidates and interest groups.
Ginsberg contends that by offering legal advice to both the Bush
campaign and the Swift Boat group, he has done nothing different
than other election lawyers in Washington, including attorneys for
Kerry and the Democratic National Committee who have also advised
soft-money groups. Representing campaigns, parties and outside
groups simultaneously is legal and allowed under the law and by the
FEC, he said.
"The truth is there is only a handful of lawyers who live and
breathe this law. And so because the coordination rules do not
include legal services among the prohibited coordinated activities,
we provide legal service," Ginsberg said.
Larry Noble, head of the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics
campaign watchdog group and former FEC general counsel, said it's
true that serving as a lawyer for both a campaign and a soft-money
group isn't considered automatic evidence of coordination under
commission rules, but added that it doesn't mean the FEC won't look
at it.
Here's a handy
chart from the New York Times.
Amy
Sullivan in Washington Monthly
points out the shamelessness here:
The front-page story
everywhere today is that a
top lawyer for the Bush/Cheney campaign has, at the same time, been
advising the infamous 527 Swift Boat Vets group. The lawyer at
the center of the story, Ben Ginsberg, says that everything he's
done is technically legal. And that may be true -- I'm not enough of
an election law expert to judge.
But what's also true
is that Ginsberg himself has attacked what he characterizes as the
impropriety of individuals holding dual roles with campaigns and
527s.
An
article that appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer just two
weeks ago included this bit about Ginsberg: "Ben Ginsberg,
a legal adviser to the Bush campaign, specifically condemned the
dual roles played by Democrats Harold Ickes and Bill Richardson, who
had official roles at the convention and also within prominent
friendly 527s. 'They're over the coordination line,' Ginsberg
said of Ickes and Richardson. 'The whole notion of cutting off
links between public officeholders and soft-money groups just got
exploded.'"
To make things even
better, Ginsberg doesn't just advise the Swift Boat Guys -- a role
he will no doubt seriously downplay over the next few days. He
serves as the official chief counsel to Progress for America,
another 527 that, according
to the Center for Responsive Politics, exists to "form
'issue truth squads' that respond to Democratic attacks on President
Bush."
I know these guys are
shameless, but still.
Incidentally,
here is something else about SBV from Disinfopedia:
In mid-August three
campaign finance watchdog groups - Democracy 21, Campaign Legal
Center, Center for Responsive Politics - filed a complaint with the
Federal Election Commission arguing that the Swift Boat Veterans for
Truth were in breach of restrictions applying to 527 committees. [27]
The complaint argues
SBVT, as a registered 527 committee, should be bound by the
Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 requirements. While noting
that SVBT is not registered as a ‘federal political committee’
the three groups argue that it should be. “SBVT is an entity
which, as a 527 group, has a ‘major purpose,’ indeed an
overriding purpose, to influence candidate elections, and more
specifically, federal candidate elections, and which has spent, or
is planning to spend, significant amounts of funds to influence the
2004 presidential election,” it stated.
“This ‘political
committee’ is therefore required to register with the Commission
under the federal campaign finance laws, and is subject to the
federal contribution limits and source prohibitions on the funds it
receives. As a political committee, SBVT may not receive more than
$5,000 per year from an individual donor, and may not receive any
union or corporate treasury funds whatsoever,” they argue. [28]
Spokesman for the
SBVT, Mike Russell, told Associated Press that the advertisement is
legal because it did not explicitly advocate a vote for a particular
presidential candidate in the presidential race. [29]
POST-SCRIPT: Ginsberg resigned after
the news came out
[MSNBC]:
An election lawyer for President Bush who also
has been advising a veterans group running TV ads against Democrat
John Kerry resigned Wednesday from Bush’s campaign...Ginsberg’s
acknowledgment Tuesday evening that he was providing legal advice to
the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth marked the second time in days that
an individual associated with the Bush-Cheney campaign had been
connected to the group, which Kerry accuses of being a front for the
Republican incumbent’s re-election effort.
6. SBV's
FEC-COMPLIANCE WORK IS DONE BY A CONSULTING FIRM THAT MANAGES TOM
DELAY'S [the DICK ARMEY FOUNDED] MAJORITY LEADER FUND (among other things) AND IS THUS CLOSELY
LINKED TO THE GOP ELECTION CAMPAIGN
Disinfopedia:
Swift Boat Veterans
for Truth appears to have sought professional help with FEC
compliance. In May 2004 it paid $7500 to Political
Compliance Services Inc., a consulting company in Fairfax, VA [30].
Political Compliance Services describes itself as "an
accounting services vendor specializing in FEC regulations. Our
comprehensive approach to your individual accounting needs will
deliver you from the headaches and legal ramifications of FEC
non-compliance." [31]
However, Political
Compliance Services itself appears to have strong Republican ties.
All its known clients are conservative [32]
. And its administrative contact Susan
Arceneaux is a Republican stalwart involved with several
right-wing organizations. She is treasurer of The
Majority Leader's Fund [33],
a listed contact for FreedomWorks
[34],
and was the custodian of records for David Horowitz's defunct 527, PoliticalWar.com
Inc. [35]
[36].
On Tuesday August 24
2004 the extent of Arceneaux's involvement with SBVT became clearer.
According to The New York Times, SBVT had admitted the
previous day that Arceneaux "helped set it up and works for
it". The NYT had discovered that Arceneaux "is given as
the contact person on the post office box that Swift Boat Veterans
for Truth lists as its address." The article also pointed out
that The Majority Leader's Fund "receives significant financing
from Bob Perry", the major donor to SBVT. [37]
[38].
Elisabeth
Bumiller and Kate Zernike (New York Times)
via Corrente:
The Swift boat group,
meanwhile, was explaining a connection between it and Ms. Arceneaux.
Records obtained by The New York Times also list Ms. Arceneaux as an
officer of a political strategy company headed by William Dal Col,
who has managed Republican campaigns.
She has also been an
officer of several conservative organizations, whose other officers
include Deborah Steelman, a Bush adviser on health care in 2000, and
Sally Atwater, whose late husband, Lee, was an architect of the
famous "Willie Horton'' attack advertisement against Michael S.
Dukakis when he ran against President Bush's father in 1988.
Joe
Conason, Salon:
The network of
Republican operatives involved in the Kerry-bashing campaign can be
traced still further to a pair of the most influential national
conservative organizations, Empower America and Citizens for a Sound
Economy, which officially merged last July under the banner of a new
entity called FreedomWorks.
That merger brought
together such right-wing luminaries as former House Republican
leader Dick Armey of Texas, former Bush White House counsel C.
Boyden Gray (who also served on the Bush-Cheney transition team in
2000), former Republican vice-presidential candidate Jack Kemp and
author and foundation official William J. Bennett. Empower America
and Citizens for a Sound Economy boast a combined "volunteer
army" of more than 600,000 activists across the country, with
many organized into state chapters. Their new combined Web site
features an endorsement from George W. Bush: "Folks, you've got
to get to know this organization. ... They have been doing a great
job all over the country educating people."
While Empower
America, Citizens for a Sound Economy and their successor
FreedomWorks describe themselves in high-minded prose as nonpartisan
crusaders for liberty and American values, their aims are almost
always ideological and often highly partisan.
This year, in a
transparent effort to assist the Bush-Cheney campaign, Citizens for
a Sound Economy and its state chapters have mobilized their members
to help place Ralph Nader on the ballot in several battleground
states. In 2000, ironically enough, the Nader-founded Government
Accountability Project denounced
CSE as a "rent-a-mouthpiece" and "mercenary" for
corporate special interests.
And now, it seems
clear that a FreedomWorks employee is directly employed in another
direct thrust at Kerry through the Swift Boat veterans.
The Times provided
the first clue
to the FreedomWorks connection by tracing the post office box
registered to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to Susan Arceneaux, a
Fairfax, Va., resident named as the contact person for the mail
drop. As the Times noted, Arceneaux is a veteran conservative
activist who has worked for various Republican campaigns and
organizations over the years. She is listed as the treasurer of the
Majority Leader's Fund, a Republican political action committee
founded by Armey.
Both Arceneaux and a
spokesman for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth declined to explain
to the Times who had introduced her to them.
The Armey PAC's most
generous donors
include Bob J. Perry, contributor of $200,000 to the Swift Boat Vets
group, and Sam and Charles Wyly, the Texas business executives who
secretly financed attack ads against John McCain during the 2000
primaries.
While Armey's Fund
has been less active in 2004 than during previous election cycles,
the former majority leader and his conservative colleagues are
pursuing their political agenda under the new rubric of FreedomWorks.
Like many other think tanks and activist groups, FreedomWorks also
maintains a political action committee. The PAC's first quarterly
report last April was signed by its treasurer, Susan Arceneaux --
not long before she showed up to work for the Swift Boat Vets group.
Perhaps the surfacing
of so many major contributors and operatives from the Bush/Texas
Republican machine and the Washington conservative network in the
"Swift Boat" controversy is all innocent coincidence. Yet
by this stage, the myriad coincidences and connections heavily
outweigh the strained credibility of White House denials.
Just for history's
sake, consider yet another coincidental connection between the
FreedomWorks nexus and the Swift Boat group.
Back in 1996, an
attorney named Harold
"Tex" Lezar was appointed chairman of Empower America
after running unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor of Texas on the
same ticket with George W. Bush, who won the governor's race. When
Lezar died last January, the mourners included his wife, Dallas
public relations executive Merrie Spaeth, and his law partner, John
E. O'Neill. By April, Spaeth and O'Neill were meeting to plan the
launch of O'Neill's new political venture -- the Swift Boat Veterans
for Truth.
The vast right-wing
conspiracy truly is a small world after all.
7.
THE BUSH CAMPAIGN CRITICIZES KERRY FOR ATTACKING BUSH OVER VIETNAM AND
CLAIMS TO HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH SBV, WHILE THEIR OWN SPOKESMEN
(including Poppy and Karl Rove) AND WEBSITE ISSUE CRITICISMS OF
KERRY'S ANTI-WAR TESTIMONY OVER VIETNAM, JUST LIKE SBV - NOT TO
MENTION COMMENTS FROM LAURA BUSH THAT THE SBV ADS ARE NOT
"UNFAIR" AND KARL ROVE'S FALSE CLAIM ABOUT KERRY'S TESTIMONY
AmericaBlog:
Bush-Cheney
campaign director Ken Mehlman criticized the DNC Web site today for
using Vietnam to attack President Bush while, it now turns out, the
Bush-Cheney Web site contains REPEATED attacks on Kerry for - what?
- Vietnam!
"Senator McCain is right,
it's wrong to divide Americans over a war that ended 35 years
ago.... It's wrong that the DNC Web site still has this." -
Ken Mehlman on ABC's This Week, September 5, 2004
Not so fast, Kenny. Let's see
what YOUR Web site has to say about John Kerry and that war that
ended 35 years ago...
Bush-Cheney
'04:
And that’s why we are
so concerned about the comments you made AFTER you came home from
Vietnam. You accused your fellow veterans of terrible atrocities
– and, to this day, you have never apologized. Even
last night, you claimed to be proud of your post-war condemnation
of our actions. We’re proud of our service in Vietnam. We served
honorably in Vietnam and we were deeply hurt and offended by your
comments when you came home.
Bush-Cheney
'04:
Personally, I can't speak for
every Vietnam veteran as to whether they see John Kerry to be fit
or not fit to be Commander-in-Chief. I can tell you that I Scott
O'Grady do not see him fit. I have had nightmares about this. Let
me put it this way. I have myself have heard John Kerry
testify that he committed war atrocities. Where he came out and
admitted that he is a war criminal. That he was involved in
activities in Vietnam where he hurt innocent civilians.
There is a big difference between war operations where civilians
are hurt or killed in collateral damage. It's a tragedy of war.
Versus actually targeting civilians, which is a criminal act. It's
against our military laws of warfare. It is an unlawful act to
purposely target non-combatants. I've heard from Senator Kerry's
mouth when he testified after coming back from Vietnam that he
purposely took part in activities that targeted civilians.
Bush-Cheney
'04:
...he comes back from
the war he calls all Vietnam Vets war criminals and shames their
service with his post war actions.
Well glad we have that settled.
Yep, it's clear that the Bush-Cheney Web site has NOTHING at all to
say about that war that ended 35 years ago.
AmericaBlog:
This
is priceless, and the LA Times & George Stephanopoulos actually
LET the Bush campaign spokesman get away with this. The Bush
campaign CRITICIZES KERRY for invoking Bush's & Cheney's
nonexistent war records in response to the Bushies' weeklong attack
on Kerry's war record - attackers who included Bush's dad, Bush's
wife, and Bush's brain (Karl Rove). Does the LA Times note the
hypocrisy of Bush criticizing Kerry for doing EXACTLY what Bush's
own family and chief aide have been doing all week? Of course not.
"Steve Schmidt, a
spokesman for the Bush campaign, said that while Bush 'is focused
on his positive vision for the future ... John Kerry ... is
consumed with the past.'" - LA
Times
And none other than Bush campaign
director Ken Mehlman said the same thing today on ABC's This Week.
"Senator McCain is right,
it's wrong to divide Americans over a war that ended 35 years
ago." - Ken Mehlman on ABC's This Week, September 5, 2004
All of which is funny because
Laura Bush, George H.W. Bush, and Karl Rove ALL criticized Kerry's
Vietnam record this past week, even though President Bush said Kerry
was a hero in Vietnam and that we all should STOP talking about
Vietnam. Apparently his own wife, father and top aide didn't get the
message to stop lying about Kerry.
Laura Bush
In an interview with Time
magazine released on Sunday, Mrs. [Laura] Bush said ads by a group
called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth criticizing Kerry were no
different from attack ads that have been aimed at President Bush.
"Do I think they're unfair? Not really." - Reuters,
8/29/04
Daddy Bush
The elder Bush then endorsed
the criticism of Kerry's role as a war protester. "I remember
that and I think that's fair game," he said in an interview
on CNN. - Chicago
Tribune, 9/2/04
Bush's Brain
White House strategist Karl
Rove said Wednesday that Sen. John Kerry had tarnished the records
of fellow Vietnam veterans with his anti-war protests, prompting a
blistering response from the Democrat's campaign. - ABC
NEWS, 9/1/04
Media
Matters:
CNN senior White
House correspondent John
King failed to confront President George W. Bush's chief
political aide, Karl
Rove, when he stated that Senator John Kerry "called"
those who served in Vietnam "war criminals" during his
1971 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. This
distortion was first leveled by the anti-Kerry group Swift
Boat Veterans for Truth in its second
TV ad.
King failed to point
out how both Rove and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have grossly
distorted Kerry's actual
testimony. As Media Matters for America has repeatedly
explained (most recently on September
1), Kerry was simply relating the personal experiences of other
Vietnam veterans who had come forward and told their stories. As
FactCheck.org has noted:
"The [Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's second] ad does indeed
fail to mention that Kerry was quoting stories he had heard from
others at an anti-war event in Detroit, and not claiming first-hand
knowledge." It is also important to note that Kerry did not
blame the soldiers for the acts they claimed to have committed;
rather, his criticism focused on the leaders of the time.
From the portion of
the interview that aired on the August 31 edition of CNN's Inside
Politics:
ROVE: You know, I
don't think of my uncle [who served in Vietnam] ... as having been
raping and pillaging and acting like Genghis Khan. I don't
think he and the men under his command should be so quickly
tarnished as being war criminals, as Senator Kerry did in his
testimony in 1971.
KING: And so then
in your view the Swift Boat ads are fine? That if the men who
served want to make that case --
ROVE: I'm against
all the 527 ads and activities. I don't think they're fair. I
don't think it's appropriate. They're misusing the law. They all
ought to stop. But I understand why some people who were in
Vietnam feel very strongly about what Senator Kerry did and said
when he came back. I mean, it is frankly an insult to them to
suggest that they were routinely war criminals, which is what he
[Kerry] called them.
In
describing the interview later on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360,
King did report that "top Bush political adviser Karl Rove
embraced the central theme" of the Swift Boat Veterans for
Truth ads. Rove's acceptance of the ads' distortions follows similar
acceptances from (1) First Lady Laura
Bush (who stated in an interview with TIME magazine that
she didn't think the ads were unfair to Kerry); and (2) from the Bush-Cheney
'04 campaign, in a letter written by the campaign and signed by
eight veterans -- including Texas state land commissioner and Bush
campaign representative Jerry
Patterson, who delivered the letter. Laura Bush's comments and
the Patterson letter came despite the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign's claims
that it has no ties to the Swift Boat Vets.
8.
AT THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION (RNC), THE GOP ALLOWED
SUPPORTERS TO MAKE A MOCKERY OF KERRY'S VIETNAM SERVICE BY WEARING
"PURPLE HEART BAND-AIDS" This
page by Operation Respect shows everything you need to see (via Buzzflash).
It doesn't matter that the GOP clamped down on this after the media
revealed this - the fact that they allowed this in the first place
shows the respect they have for the armed forces.
Digby:
Political Hate
Speech
A
GOP delegate handed out bandages with purple hearts on them Monday
night at the Republican National Convention in a swipe at
Democratic nominee John Kerry's war record, but national GOP
officials have asked him to stop.
The bandages were handed out by Morton Blackwell, a longtime GOP
activist from Virginia, with the message: ''It was just a
self-inflicted scratch, but you see I got a Purple Heart for it.''
Kerry won three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star for
his service in the Vietnam War. A group calling itself Swift Boat
Veterans for Truth has been attacking Kerry as a liar through
campaign ads and media interviews, but Kerry's wartime experiences
have been backed by crewmates and official records.
''It is inexcusable for a delegate to mock anyone who has ever put
on a soldier's uniform,'' said Democratic Chairman Terry McAuliffe.
''It is inexcusable to mock service and sacrifice.''
Blackwell, who gave out almost 250 of the bandages, said veterans
have every right to be angry about anti-war comments Kerry made
after returning to this country.
Party Chairman Ed Gillespie spoke to Blackwell, and they agreed
that he would not distribute the bandages tonight, said GOP
spokesman Jim Dyke.
This is where the
talking heads come in. Don't let this go. They need to repeat their
shock and dismay at this disgusting little "joke" that
dishonors the troops over and over again until everybody is sick of
hearing it. And when the other side says that it wasn't the RNC who
did it and that Gillespie asked them to stop, they need to say
"yes, you people claim that you are never responsible for any
of these smears against veterans. But they just keep coming, even at
your own convention."
This is a rather silly issue on its face, but it's an easy to
understand symbol of the GOP's willingness to devalue a veteran's
service if he doesn't agree with their politics.
Incidentally, just who is this pond
scum Morton Blackwell?
Here's DailyKos:
Blackwell,
as it turns out, is one of the founding members of the ugly side of
the American Conservative movement. He was there at the creation
with jokers like Brent Bozell, William F. Buckley, and Phyllis
Schlafly. His "non-partisan" Leadership
Institute has trained thousands of conservative footsoldiers,
including Grover
Norquist and Ralph Reed.
So, he's no mere
activist like your local Rotarians or county NRA
secretary-treasurer. He's in the inner circle of Republican power,
having worked his way in as a leader in the Draft Goldwater movement
and bought his way in with thousands of dollars in contributions
($16000 over the last four years alone; see the FEC
database).
Now, it might be
tempting to flood the Leadership
Institute with letter denouncing their lack of patriotism and
disdain for the sacrifice of veterans everywhere. Far be it from to
stop your patriotic pursuits. However, it might be more fruitful to
alert the Johnson&Johnson
Company that this thug is using their Band-Aid® brand name
without permission.
Contact
form and phone number (1-866-565-2873).
Part II: Bush and 527
organizations A.
BUSH BERATES ALL SO-CALLED 527 ORGANIZATIONS, STATING HOW THEY SHOULD
NOT BE ALLOWED TO RUN ANY ADS - EVEN THOUGH HE SUPPORTED AND SIGNED
THE LAW THAT LETS THEM DO IT - AND STARTED A 527 HIMSELF IN 2000. HIS
REPEATED FLIP-FLOPPING ON CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAWS IS ENOUGH TO MAKE ANY
REASONABLE PERSON'S HEAD SPIN.
[Bush
via Outside the Tent]: I'm
denouncing all the stuff being on TV of the 527s. That's what I've
said. I said this kind of unregulated soft money is wrong for the
process. And I asked Senator Kerry to join me in getting rid of all
that kind of soft money, not only on TV, but used for other
purposes, as well. I, frankly, thought we'd gotten rid of that when
I signed the McCain-Feingold bill. I thought we were going to, once
and for all, get rid of a system where people could just pour tons
of money in and not be held to account for the advertising. And so
I'm disappointed with all those kinds of ads.
Outside
the Tent via Sadly
No:
How
on earth Bush can say with a straight face that he's against soft
money issue ads and that he thought that McCain-Feingold got rid of
individual soft money is beyond me. First, until lately, Bush has
been very clear that one of his principles of campaign finance
reform was to leave individual contributions unregulated. Indeed put
"soft money" in the search box at www.whitehouse.gov and
the first
result is a March
2001 letter to Trent Lott saying this:
President Bush
believes democracy is first and foremost about the rights of
individuals to express their views. He supports strengthening the
role of individuals in the political process by: 1) updating the
limits established more than two decades ago on individual giving
to candidates and national parties; and 2) protecting the rights
of citizen groups to engage in issue advocacy.
Second, the statement
released by Bush on signing McCain-Feingold (search result #20)
shows that W (or at least the guy who wrote W's statement for him)
clearly understood that only union and corporate soft money were
restricted. Indeed, Bush objected to the McCain-Feingold's
restriction on issue advertising by unions and corporations within
sixty days of a general election:
I also have
reservations about the constitutionality of the broad ban on issue
advertising, which restrains the speech of a wide variety of
groups on issues of public import in the months closest to an
election. I expect that the courts will resolve these legitimate
legal questions as appropriate under the law.
So for Bush to say
that he has been opposed to soft money issue advertising all along
is a "flip flop" at best and a lie at worst. Now that he's
gotten his knickers in a knot over MoveOn.org, he's ready to toss
the First Amendment out the door and not merely restrict but
prohibit issue advocacy by individuals.
Nick
Confessore, TAPPED:
MORE
ON THOSE 527s.
My colleague Matthew Yglesias rightly
notes that President Bush's denunciation of 527s is
hypocritical and self-contradictory. This is especially true given
(let me add some more examples) that the campaign finance law the
president signed just a few years ago deliberately avoided
closing the 527 loophole; that Bush beat Sen. John McCain (R-Ari.)
during the 2000 primary in part with
the help of a 527 run by his supporter Sam Wylie; that
Bush's own campaign manager, campaign counsel, and political guru (Ken
Melhman, Ben Ginsburg, and Karl Rove,
respectively) have
attended fundraising and organizational events for Progress for
America, a 527 founded by Bush's political director from the 2000
campaign, Tony Feather; that GOP chairman Ed Gillespie
and Bush campaign chairman Mark Racicot recently
issued a statement designating PFA and yet another GOP 527, the
Leadership Forum, as a good place for Republicans to give money to;
and that the
second-biggest 527 in the U.S. is the Republican Governors
Association, a group spun off by the Republican National Committee
two years ago specifically to collect and harness soft money
for state and local GOP candidates.
If President Bush is opposed to 527s, somebody better tell his
senior campaign staff, and quick.
Amy
Sullivan, Washington Monthly:
....Matt
Yglesias makes a good point: Why does Bush keep trying to
pretend that 527s are all evil liberal fronts for the Kerry
campaign? He and his wife support any number of conservative 527s,
including the National
Federation for Republican Women, whose magazine cover they
currently grace. And Lord knows they benefit from them.
The National
Republican Congressional Committee and National Republican
Senatorial Committee -- two 527s that are, um, Republican -- raised
a whopping $24 million in July at the "President's
Dinner," one of the largest fundraising events of the year that
stars the big man himself. $24 million. I guess those 527s can come
in handy sometimes after all.
DailyKos:
Via Pandagon:
In 2000, George
W. Bush formed a 527 to fund his efforts to challenge the Florida
recount. According to Public Citizen:
The
recount fund created by the Bush-Cheney 2000 presidential campaign
evaded a soft money campaign finance disclosure law for 18 months
and did not file required forms until the last day of an Internal
Revenue Service (IRS) "amnesty" program for
out-of-compliance groups, Public Citizen has discovered.
The Bush-Cheney
2000, Inc-Recount Fund, a 527 political group created shortly
after the November 2000 election to pay for the legal and
political activities in Florida and other contested areas,
apparently did not file at least four - and perhaps as many as six
- required disclosure forms until 3:25 p.m. on July 15, 2002 -
meeting the deadline to avoid millions of dollars in potential
fines by less than nine hours.
"On its
contribution form, the Bush-Cheney recount fund promised full
disclosure, but trustees have evaded the soft money law for 18
months and just narrowly escaped nearly $7 million in fines,"
said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen. "The 527
disclosure law was designed to shed light on this type of 'stealth
PAC' but the recount fund trustees flouted that law and didn't
begin to comply until the last possible moment."
If Bush
hates 527s so much, why did he form one in 2000? If he has a
problem with these "shadowy" groups, why did the one under
his control refuse to promptly disclose even the little information
required by law?
Via Atrios,
Bush said he was concerned about curtailing issue advertising when he
signed McCain-Feingold, but now, he claims he signed it to eliminate
that advertising. From the White House press releases:
March
27, 2002: I believe individual freedom to participate in
elections should be expanded, not diminished; and when individual
freedoms are restricted, questions arise under the First
Amendment. I
also have reservations about the constitutionality of the broad
ban on issue advertising, which restrains the speech of a wide
variety of groups on issues of public import in the months closest
to an election."
August 23, 2004:
Absolutely. I don't think we ought to have 527s. I can't be more
plain about it. And I wish -- I hope my opponent joins me in
saying, condemning these activities of the 527s. It's the -- I
think they're bad for the system. That's
why I signed the bill, McCain-Feingold."
...
Also
at The Washington Monthly, Paul Glastris notes that a pro-Bush,
anti-McCain 527 was the inspiration for current 527 regulations:
"[T]he disclosure law [Bush's 527] almost broke was put in
place just before the 2000 general election as a direct response
to the mysterious appearance during the GOP primaries of yet
another 527, Republicans
for Clean Air. That group ran ads bashing John McCain's
environmental voting record and praising then-Gov. Bush's. Not
only were the facts in the ads a stretch, but because there was at
the time no disclosure requirement, no one knew who was paying for
them."
Back
at Tapped, Jeffrey Dubner notes that Bush's 527 still exists:
"If Mr. President is going to 'call on Senator Kerry again
today to join us in calling for a stop to all of these
activities,' why isn't he taking the first step himself?"
Matthew
Yglesias, TAPPED:
DAMN
THOSE 527s. Atrios
keeps asking a good
question -- what is the president trying to say about 527s? On one
level, of course, we all know that this is a pure dodge, adopted for
expediency's sake, that has nothing to do with any real substantive
beliefs. On the other hand, he does keep saying he wants to get
rid of these "shadowy groups," and there was a time not so
long ago when campaign finance was a hotly debated issue. So the
question needs to be asked: If the president hates
527s so much, how did he and his wife wind up on the cover of Republican
Woman magazine, a publication of the National
Federation of Republican Women, which you'll find right
here on OpenSecrets' list of 527 groups. Or how does he feel about
the NFRW's upcoming tribute
to Laura Bush at the Republican convention. Even more
interesting -- why did the RNC donate
$10,000 to GOPAC,
yet another insidious 527 group?
Brad
DeLong catalogs the furious, unprincipled flip-flopping best:
George
W. Bush, Wimp-in-Chief
God! What a wimp!
Does anybody really want a guy like this commanding the U.S.
military?
George
W. Bush: Face the Nation: March 5, 2000: Bob, there are people
spending ads that say nice things about me. There are people
spending money on ads that say ugly things about me. That's part
of the American--let me finish. That's part of the American
process...
George
W. Bush: Larry King Live: August 12, 2004: Well, I say they
ought to get rid of all those 527s, independent expenditures that
have flooded the airwaves. There have been millions of dollars
spent up until this point in time. I signed [the McCain-Feingold]
law that I thought would get rid of those, and I called on the
senator to -- let's just get anybody who feels like they got to
run to not do so....
George
W. Bush: White House: March 27, 2002: [McCain-Feingold] does
have flaws. Certain provisions present serious constitutional
concerns. In particular, H.R. 2356 goes farther than I originally
proposed.... I believe individual freedom to participate in
elections should be expanded, not diminished; and when individual
freedoms are restricted, questions arise under the First
Amendment. I also have reservations about the constitutionality of
the broad ban on issue advertising, which restrains the speech of
a wide variety of groups on issues of public import in the months
closest to an election...
George
W. Bush: Face the Nation: March 5, 2000: You know, let me--let
me say something to you. People have the right to run ads. They
have the right to do what they want to do, under the--under the
First Amendment in America...
George
W. Bush: Larry King Live: August 12, 2004 : Well, I haven’t
seen the ad, but what I do condemn is these unregulated,
soft-money expenditures by very wealthy people, and they’ve said
some bad things about me. I guess they’re saying bad things
about him. And what I think we ought to do is not have them on the
air. I think there ought to be full disclosure. The campaign
funding law I signed I thought was going to get rid of that. But
evidently the Federal Election Commission had a different view...
George
W. Bush: Washington Post: March 28, 2000: George W. Bush
opposes McCain-Feingold...as an infringement on free expression...
George
W. Bush: Face the Nation: March 5, 2000: There have been ads,
independent expenditures, that are saying bad things about me. I
don't particularly care when they do, but that's what freedom of
speech is all about...
George
W. Bush: via Scott McClellan: August 26, 2004: The president
said he wanted to work together [with McCain] to pursue court
action to shut down all the ads and activity by these shadowy 527
groups," White House press secretary Scott McClellan told
reporters on Air Force One after Bush spoke to McCain by telephone
from the presidential jet Thursday morning...
George
W. Bush: letter to Trent Lott: March 15, 2001: Protect Rights
of Individuals to Participate in Democracy: by: 1) updating the
limits on individual giving to candidates and national parties;
and 2) protecting the rights of citizen groups to engage in issue
advocacy...
George
W. Bush: Los Angeles: March 2, 2000: In my state that’s the
way it is. People can give any amount they want to give so long as
there’s disclosure.... I believe the best policy is to say
individuals can give [to whoever they want] and then have instant
disclosure on the Internet...
And, of course, there's Bush's own
campaign strategy:
George
W. Bush: Face the Nation: March 5, 2000: his allegation
somehow that I'm involved with this is just totally ridiculous. It
is uncalled for. There is no--no truth whatsoever. This--the
notion that this man who ran the ads spent the night in the
governor's mansion--I think Senator McCain just made that
allegation--they're--they're just not true...
"Senior
Republican": Financial Times: December 9, 2003: It
is an open secret in Washington that White House-blessed campaign
strategists have been working quietly for months to compile
potentially damaging background on all the Democratic candidates.
In the early going, when it appeared Mr Kerry would emerge as the
frontrunner, one senior Republican commented wryly: "By the
time the White House finishes with Kerry, no one will know what
side of the (Vietnam) war he fought on."...
More here.
B.
BUSH AND HIS CAMPAIGN CLAIM THAT 527S ARE "SHADOWY" GROUPS
WITHOUT ACCOUNTABILITY, EVEN THOUGH
THEY ARE NOT BECAUSE OF THE BILL HE SIGNED INTO LAW. PERHAPS HE WAS REFERRING TO THE "SHADOWY" 527S
THAT FINANCED HIS WIN OVER MCCAIN IN 2000 OR HIS FLORIDA RECOUNT
CAMPAIGN THAT SAME YEAR
[McClellan
for Bush via Sadly No]: ...the President
has called on Senator Kerry to join him in calling for all of these
ads and activity by these shadowy groups ... Let's call for an end
to all of these ads by these shadowy groups ... The President has
been on the receiving end of more than $63 million in negative
attacks from these shadowy groups ... Well, he believes we should
get rid of all of this activity and ads by these shadowy groups. ...
That is the answer: Senator Kerry should join us in calling for an
end to all of this unregulated soft-money activity by these shadowy
groups ... These ads are another example of the problem with these
shadowy groups. [Bush
via Outside the Tent]: I'm
denouncing all the stuff being on TV of the 527s. That's what I've
said. I said this kind of unregulated soft money is wrong for the
process. And I asked Senator Kerry to join me in getting rid of all
that kind of soft money, not only on TV, but used for other
purposes, as well. I, frankly, thought we'd gotten rid of that when
I signed the McCain-Feingold bill. I thought we were going to, once
and for all, get rid of a system where people could just pour tons
of money in and not be held to account for the advertising. And so
I'm disappointed with all those kinds of ads.
[Senator
Sam Brownback for BC04]: You're seeing
these 527s all over the place...The money is -- we don't know where
it's coming from, we don't know how much there is in it, but it's
out there.
Sadly
No:
Did President Bush
call for an end to these shadowy groups in 2000?
One of the most often
cited examples was Republicans for Clean Air, a group that ran $
2.5 million in TV ads supporting Texas Gov. George W. Bush during
his GOP presidential primary fight against Sen. John McCain.
[Tampa Tribune, August 14, 2000.]
When two brothers from
Texas can form a 527 overnight, fund $2.5 million in last-minute
ads and anonymously turn a probable McCain win into a Bush
victory, voters have a compelling right to know: Who's footing
that bill? What contractual relationship might they have with a
Bush administration? [Plain Dealer, Cleveland. July 5, 2000.]
And finally:
The measure, which
cleared the Senate 92-6, will no longer allow groups organized
under Section 527 of the tax code to raise unlimited amounts of
money for political purposes without identifying the donors and
how the money is spent. ...
Other tax-exempt
interest groups and companies - which some Republicans tried
unsuccessfully to include in the bill - will remain free to run
ads without disclosing their donors as long as the groups stick to
advocacy issues and do not directly advocate a candidate's
election or defeat.
"Passage of
this bill proves that public interest can triumph over special
interests," Clinton said in a statement urging lawmakers to
approve other election-law changes. The legislation also was
praised by Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush.
[Emphasis added] [The Houston Chronicle, June 30, 2000.]
Outside
the Tent via Sadly
No:
How
on earth Bush can say with a straight face that he's against soft
money issue ads and that he thought that McCain-Feingold got rid of
individual soft money is beyond me. First, until lately, Bush has
been very clear that one of his principles of campaign finance
reform was to leave individual contributions unregulated. Indeed put
"soft money" in the search box at www.whitehouse.gov and
the first
result is a March
2001 letter to Trent Lott saying this:
President Bush
believes democracy is first and foremost about the rights of
individuals to express their views. He supports strengthening the
role of individuals in the political process by: 1) updating the
limits established more than two decades ago on individual giving
to candidates and national parties; and 2) protecting the rights
of citizen groups to engage in issue advocacy.
Second, the statement
released by Bush on signing McCain-Feingold (search result #20)
shows that W (or at least the guy who wrote W's statement for him)
clearly understood that only union and corporate soft money were
restricted. Indeed, Bush objected to the McCain-Feingold's
restriction on issue advertising by unions and corporations within
sixty days of a general election:
I also have
reservations about the constitutionality of the broad ban on issue
advertising, which restrains the speech of a wide variety of
groups on issues of public import in the months closest to an
election. I expect that the courts will resolve these legitimate
legal questions as appropriate under the law.
So for Bush to say
that he has been opposed to soft money issue advertising all along
is a "flip flop" at best and a lie at worst. Now that he's
gotten his knickers in a knot over MoveOn.org, he's ready to toss
the First Amendment out the door and not merely restrict but
prohibit issue advocacy by i | 
